Current situation The Green Book of the European Commission on Integrated Product Policy (IPP) and the Resolution of the Environmental Council from June 2000 envisage a role for standardisation in implementing IPP. This requires the participation of all stakeholders, including environmental NGOs. The latter have not been in the position to participate actively in standardisation, due to a lack of resources at European and national level (with the exception of Germany and Denmark and, to a certain extent, France). Working at national level is extremely important as the standardisation process for European and International standards is based on consensus among national standard bodies who have to represent their national consensus. Environmental NGOs should strive to become part of the national consensus.
Standards play an important role in European environmental policy either by being mandated under the New Approach, as references e.g. for testing and measuring methods and as blue prints for legislation. Commission, Council and European Parliament have at numerous occasions highlighted the need of stakeholder participation in the New Approach. The New Approach of the EU is to implement European legislation by delegating dealings with technical issues to standards bodies.
What is the EEB doing? Until April 2000, the EEB has participated at horizontal level in standardisation in the Strategic Advisory Board for the Environment (SABE) of CEN (European Standardisation Committee) on the integration of environmental concerns into product standards. It also took part in meetings of a group preparing for the establishment of the Environmental Helpdesk and in the SABE Eco-label Team.
However, in April 2000, the EEB decided to suspend its membership as it concluded that the newly created bodies SABE and the Environmental Helpdesk were not equipped to have a real impact and that the EEB lacked the financial means to participate in the work of the standardisation committees. The Commission, however, continued to reject a proposal by the EEB and its partners (WWF, BirdLife and FoE Europe) to fund a Technical Bureau to organise the real, direct involvement of NGOs in the standardisation process on all levels.
In 2001 the Commission had issued a call for tender on a "Service contract for the integration of environmental requirements in the European standardisation process". The newly founded "European Environmental Citizens Organisations for Standardisation" (ECOS) sent in an application and was awarded a three-year contract. ECOS started functioning on November 1, 2002. EEB's Scientific Adviser became Chairperson. Website ECOS: http://www.ecostandard.org
ECOS has now 11 members, four European federations and seven national organisations/ federations. ECOS co-ordinates the input of NGOs into standards work and represents the Members of ECOS at the EU institutions and standards bodies. ECOS sends environmental experts to Technical Committees and working groups and has an official observer status with the European standard bodies CEN and CENELEC as well as at ISO/TC 207 at international level. The EEB sees its own task as assisting this organisation in linking - with others - its work to the general objectives of sustainable standardisation policies. Experts of EEB working groups have become ECOS experts or have contributed to the different ECOS Task Forces on specific work items as task force members or leaders.
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For more information, please contact: Karola TASCHNER
email: karola.taschner@eeb.org
